3:27 AM
by isinkintohearts
Summary: It isn't quite a promise or a reassurance, but somehow, it's enough for now. / takes place right after iLove You. oneshot.


**A/N: Post-iLove You. My iPod says this story has been completed for about a month now, but oh well. I haven't written in so long so I apologize for being quite rusty. Now have your dose of Sam/Freddie happy angst.**

* * *

><p>It's dark and too quiet as she lies on her bed, eyes wide open, on her side as she clutches one of her pillows like a lifeline. She still can't make sense of the last four weeks, the first and last four weeks she actually spent with him wherein he knew how she had felt. A draft comes in through her window and she shivers, yet makes no attempt to get out of bed and get herself a blanket. Her body is paralyzed, her mind racing a million miles a minute.<p>

Her phone vibrates and she jumps, forgetting she had put it beside her. The luminescence from the phone lights up the whole room and she has to blink before her eyes get used to it. She grabs the phone quickly, hands feeling numb after squeezing them tightly together for so long.

_3:27 AM_, it tells her. Was it really that late, had time been flying past her? As if time had just caught up to her, she stifles a yawn with the back of her hand and unlocks her phone with her passcode (_081311_) and stares at the screen expectantly.

The words _new message _and his name with a heart pops out. Her heart starts racing, her mind clearing up, and she unconsciously (and out of habit) sets herself up for disappointment again. Suddenly she feels everything around her, the warm breeze, the silkiness of her sheets, the trembling of her fingers as they press down her phone.

_Text me when you get home.__  
><em>  
>Her eyebrows crinkle in confusion. She left the Shays' apartment more than three hours ago, and he was just texting now?<p>

He had told her to take the bus, to not be her stubborn usual self for once and to take the bus because it was safest. She reassured him that she would, but walked her way home, anyway. She could hold her own, and everyone knows it. Just because they're together—oops, _were_together, ouch—doesn't mean he should see her as less than she used to be.

Correction, than she _is_. No boy is going to soften her up and be able to think he did.

Why now, though? If she had actually taken the bus the ride would've lasted fifteen minutes, max. Does he know her well enough to know she wouldn't do as he said and walk home?

Still, walking home wouldn't take till three in the morning, either. The boy's a lunatic, and if this is his way of showing he cares and that he's concerned about her, then...

She doesn't know. Her threat comes up empty, and her heart thuds faster and louder at the thought of him _caring_. She'd roll her eyes at herself right now, but she can't find the heart to.

She presses the reply button and types, as slowly and neatly as she can, _Home_. One word. It's simple and to the point and it doesn't hint any of her feelings. Without hesitation, she presses send.

She waits, and waits, and suddenly everything is languid and slow and she hears the clock from down the hall, _tick tock tick tock_, and somehow it's slower. Another breeze comes through the window and she shivers. This time she grabs a blanket and wraps it around herself. She realizes that it's like everything's against her, but she's sure that if there's one thing that's not... it's Freddie.

After all, he never did say, _No, Sam, I don't think we should break up_. All she heard was _if you say so yeah you're right we should break up it's mutual yes yes yes_. And in the middle of that _I love you_s were exchanged, but they seem really small from where they're standing right now.

Before she can put more thought into it, her phone vibrates and one world illuminates the room: _Goodnight_.

There isn't a reason for her to be crying, but she finds herself blinking back tears as she struggles to read and reread the text message in the dim light. It isn't quite a promise or reassurance, but somehow, it's enough for now. She falls asleep soon after, into a deep, dreamless sleep, and somehow she knows that they're going to be okay.


End file.
